


Mem, Aurek, Resh, Aurek

by lirin



Category: Star Wars Legends - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, POV Child
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-26
Updated: 2018-04-26
Packaged: 2019-04-28 01:43:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14438799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lirin/pseuds/lirin
Summary: When the Emperor had taken Mara from her family, he had promised to teach her about the Force. But he was a very busy man, so Mara spent most of the time stuck in a boring room playing with blocks.





	Mem, Aurek, Resh, Aurek

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Elsajeni](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elsajeni/gifts).



The Palace was a terribly big place, on a terribly big planet, but Mara wasn't allowed to explore any of it. She had had more room to play when she'd lived in Mama and Papa's tiny home than she had here, in her private room of the creche, with only Plara for company. Plara was boring. She was supposed to look after Mara, but she just sat around reading a datapad all day, and didn't pay any attention to Mara except when the Emperor paid them a visit. Plara didn't even know what the Force was.

Mara wondered why the Emperor bothered to keep Plara around. When he'd taken Mara from her old home and brought her here, he'd told her it was because Mama and Papa didn't know the Force, and that Mara needed to live somewhere where her gifts could be nurtured properly. But if Mara was so special, didn't she deserve somebody less boring than Plara? 

If Mara had to be stuck alone with somebody who didn't know the Force, she would rather have it be Mama. If Mama were here, she would hug Mara and tell her what a good girl she was. She would sit next to Mara, here on the floor, and ask her what the letters were on her blocks. The block Mara was holding right now had Jenth on it, but she didn't bother to tell Plara. Plara would have just glared at her for distracting her from her datapad. Mara wanted to tell Mama that she knew all of her letters, now. When she'd said goodbye to Mama back at her old home, she hadn't even known what all the letters were, but now she knew all of them and what order they went in. Aurek, Besh, Cresh, Dorn, Esk... Mara picked up the bin of blocks and dumped it out. One by one, she put them in order until she'd spelled out the whole alphabet, all the way to Thesh.

When she was done, she looked up at Plara to see if she saw what she had accomplished, but of course Plara wasn't looking. Mara scowled. She reached out to the Force and shoved Plara's datapad as hard as she could. It skidded across the desk and banged into the wall. Maybe it had banged hard enough that it wouldn't work any more, and then Plara would come play with her.

"Why you little..." Plara snarled. She heaved herself up from her chair and leaned over to pick the datapad from where it had fallen. She poked at the screen for a few seconds, first normally, then harder and harder. Suddenly, she hurled it towards Mara as hard as she could. Mara reached out to the Force again and stopped it. Plara wasn't very smart. She should have known that that wouldn't do any good.

Plara stomped back to her chair and slumped there, staring at the wall now that she didn't have anything to read. She could have read Mara's blocks if she'd come and played with Mara, but apparently she wasn't going to bother even now. Mara shrugged and started putting the blocks in backwards order, from Thesh to Aurek.

There was a rustle at the corner of Mara's thoughts: a faraway shadow in the Force. It was probably the Emperor. Nobody else Mara knew made such a big shadow, that could be seen at such a distance. It was funny, he was such a small unimportant-looking man to look at, but in the Force he was grand and imposing.

Mara hurried to pick up her blocks and put them all in the bin. Papa used to remind Mara not to leave her blocks all over the floor, because parents had enough cleanup to do without little girls making more work for them. Since the Emperor had told Mara that he was her parent now, he would probably expect the same thing of her. Mara didn't want to do anything that he wouldn't like. He'd been so good to her, teaching her about the Force and showing her that the galaxy was bigger than just the little moon Mara had been born on. Mara only wished that Mama had been able to see the Force too, so she could have learned all these wonderful things with Mara. It was lonely without her.

Besides, the Emperor didn't visit Mara in the creche often, because he was a very busy man, so Plara was the only person Mara saw for days on end. And Plara wasn't good company at all. The only times she wasn't sitting and ignoring Mara were the times the Emperor was coming to pay them a visit, and then Plara yelled at Mara a bunch to stand up straight and smile and all sorts of things that Mara knew to do without being told. Funny she wasn't saying all those things to Mara right now, with the Emperor so close. Maybe he hadn't told Plara he was coming this time. Plara wasn't smart enough to use the Force to know that he was there. Maybe the Emperor would finally find out how boring Plara was and how she never played with Mara like she was supposed to.

Mara dropped the last few blocks into the bin, pretending she didn't feel the Emperor approaching. He was still several rooms away, though. She took three blocks off the top of the bin. Mem, Aurek, Resh—there had to be another block with Aurek on it somewhere. She dug through the bin, all the way down to the bottom, until she found one. Mem, Aurek, Resh, Aurek. Those were the first letters Mama had ever taught her. And then she'd turned to Mara and smiled. Her eyes had shone, like—like something pretty, but Mara wasn't sure what. She couldn't remember what color they were anymore. The Emperor's eyes were yellow and not pretty at all to look at. And he never told Mara she was a good girl for knowing how to spell her name. But he told her she was good when she did things with the Force. Mama had just frowned and told her to forget about such nonsense. The Emperor never called it nonsense.

Plara didn't try to tell Mara that it was nonsense, either, but that might just be because she was scared of the Emperor. He could be very scary sometimes. He never yelled, but his voice got strange and the Force darkened all around him, like a terrible storm of rain and lightning and darkness. Not like now. The Force around where he was walking felt like gray fabric. Dark gray, thick and heavy, like it would be hard to breathe through if it was right on top of your face. But as long as he didn't do anything, the fabric didn't touch Mara's face, and she could breathe just fine.

He was nearly there, like a curtain over the doorway. Mara dropped the four blocks back into the bin. Mem, Aurek, Resh, Aurek. Almost like "Mama"...that was Mem, Aurek, Mem, Aurek. If Mama had been here, maybe she would have helped Mara spell those words and more besides. But Plara just sat in her chair. She was staring into the distance now, the broken datapad still on the floor where it had fallen.

Maybe the Emperor would want to help Mara spell. He was her parent now, after all. He was right outside. Quickly, Mara reached back into the bin and pulled out those four favorite blocks, just as the Emperor opened the door. Triumphantly, Mara placed them on the floor in front of her. Mem, Aurek, Resh, Aurek. She smiled up at the Emperor, pushing with the Force to give herself a small clear space in the midst of the dark choking curtains that were now all around her.

He was looking at Plara, but he felt Mara's brushes at the Force and looked down. His lips curved into a smile, and he patted her once on the head. "Well done, child," he said. "Can you spell Coruscant?"

That was the planet they were on now. Mara nodded and reached back into the bin. Coruscant began with Krill...no, Cresh. Cresh was the one with three lines, one poking up, one poking down, and the shortest line in the middle. The Emperor stepped past Mara and went to talk to Plara, but Mara didn't stop trying to spell Coruscant. If the Emperor gave you a task to do, he always expected you to do it no matter what, and you could get punished if you didn't. Plara should be punished, because she hadn't looked after Mara as she was supposed to. Maybe she would even have to go without dinner, like Mara had had to when she busted a hole in her room on the spaceship that brought her here. It had been an accident—she hadn't known much about how to use the Force back then, and she'd missed Mama and Papa too much in those days—but she'd gotten in trouble anyways. 

Mara peeked over the edge of the bin to see whether Plara looked scared. Plara was kneeling in front of the Emperor, her eyes wide. "Please, sir," she said. "I've taken care of the girl as well as I know how."

Osk. Osk was the next letter in Coruscant, and then Resh. Mara already had a block with Resh on it because it was also in her name. She dug through the bin to look for an Osk, peeking up every so often to watch the conversation with Plara.

"I told you to tend to the child and teach her her letters and numbers," the Emperor said darkly. Around him, the Force was swirling in a storm of black and gray. Mara pushed the darkness away from where she was sitting so that she could still see her blocks clearly. She knew she'd seen an Usk near the side of the bin. She picked up a handful of blocks from that side and poked through them.

"I did my best, Your Majesty," Plara whispered. Mara thought she was crying. Mara hadn't cried when she wasn't allowed to have dinner, or even when the Emperor took her away from Mama and Papa. Plara was so much older than Mara; why wasn't she being brave and not crying? The Emperor was angry now,  but his anger never lasted long. Even if Mara got in trouble for a day, the next day he would smile at her again. Oh, there was Usk! Now to find Senth.

"You will not fail me again," the Emperor said sternly. The storm around him was growing stronger and stronger.

"Please, Your Majesty!"

There was Senth, and a Cresh right next to it! How nice. Mara wished the Emperor were less angry; it was distracting her from seeing the blocks. Next, Coruscant had an Aurek in it, which she already had out from when she'd spelled her own name. She set it next to Cresh, and raked her hand through the blocks, hoping she'd find a Nern without having to look through all of them.

In front of her, the dark storm burst out into flashes of lightning and thunder. Plara started screaming and didn't stop. The Emperor was yelling something, but Mara couldn't catch what. She peeked up over the side of the bin of blocks. Plara was on the ground, lightning sparking off of her body. Red blood oozed from the corner of her mouth down onto her chin. As Mara watched, Plara's head gave one last jerk and then she lay completely still.

The Emperor turned back around, slowly. The storm started to fade a bit, and the lightning was all gone, but Mara still thought it was the scariest she'd ever seen him. As he faced her fully, she cowered behind the bin of blocks. "Come here, child," he said.

Mara scooted forward. "I can spell Coruscant," she said. "I'm just not quite done. I still have to find Nern and Trill."

The Emperor looked down at the blocks she had laid out. "Well done," he said. "I'll have a more competent tutor brought to you, one hired for their skills and not just who they know, who can teach you how to read now that you know your letters." Behind him, Plara hadn't moved at all. Mara wondered if she was dead. "Let me show you something," the Emperor said. He crouched down next to Mara and took her hand in his. With their intertwined hands, he reached out towards the bin of blocks. The dark cloud spread out to envelop it. "Now, think of the letters you just said. Nern and Trill."

Mara thought as hard as she could, stretching her hand out, still clasped in the Emperor's big wrinkly one.  _Nern, Trill. Nern, Trill._  "Oh!" Two blocks floated up out of the bin. Slowly, directed by the Emperor, they arranged themselves next to the blocks Mara had already laid out. "Cresh, Osk, Resh, Usk, Senth, Cresh, Aurek, Nern, Trill!" Mara exclaimed proudly.

"Well done, child," the Emperor said. He let go of her hand and stood up. "One day soon, you will have the strength in the Force to do that yourself. And then you will be able to begin the next stage of your training." He patted her shoulder. "Until then, wait here. I'll have a better tutor sent to you shortly." He left the room. The door slid shut behind him.

More training sounded fun. Mara was getting bored of sitting alone and playing with blocks. And maybe her next tutor wouldn't sit around and ignore her all day.

Mara tiptoed up to Plara and poked her cheek. Plara didn't move. Mara wondered why the Emperor would want to kill Plara. Weren't people only supposed to be killed if they did very bad things? But everybody said the Emperor was a wise man, so he must have had a good reason. Maybe ignoring children was a very bad thing to do. Papa had done it a lot, but maybe he had been bad too.

With a shrug, Mara returned to her blocks. She needed another word to spell, now that Coruscant was done. She looked around the room for something to spell. It was a very boring room, with almost nothing to look at. Plara was the only thing there she hadn't spelled before. The bin had Peth and Leth right on the top. Then Aurek...but she already had two Aureks and a Resh out of the bin, from when she'd written Mara. Plara's name ended just like hers. She'd used some of them in Coruscant, but they were still all close together. Mara started to grab the blocks, then remembered what the Emperor had shown her. She held her hand out, and thought about those three blocks at the end of her name. Slowly, in fits and starts, they slid the few inches over the floor to where she had set Peth and Leth.

Mara peeked another glance at Plara. She looked really dead. Too bad. Mara should have thought to spell her name for her when she was alive; maybe that would have made her finally act interested in what Mara was doing.

There was nothing to do in this boring room except play with blocks. It wasn't fair that the Emperor had killed the only person she had to talk to, and then gone off and left her alone. Mara glared at the door, but it stayed closed. She glared at Plara, but she didn't move. She glared at the blocks, and they just stared silently back up at her. Peth, Leth, Aurek, Resh, Aurek. Mara shoved them with the Force until they scattered all over, then curled up on the floor under the table. She hoped the Emperor would send her her new tutor soon.


End file.
